60th Annual Meeting

October 19 - 27, 2013

Special Interest Study Group 11 (sold out)

The Medical and Psychiatric Evaluation of the Nonverbal Child

Many nonverbal children and adolescents with medical problems present with a change in behavior and little other indication that they are experiencing pain, discomfort, or dysfunction. Child and adolescent psychiatrists and allied mental health professional may be poorly equipped to identify medical problems presenting as changes in behavior. There is a risk that these children and adolescents will be viewed as having a change in psychiatric status and be inappropriately exposed to psychotropic medication or an increase in dosage of a psychotropic medication. This SIG explores, through several case examples, novel practices on the assessment and management of pain in nonverbal patients and the need to develop, or appropriately adapt, tools that health care providers can use in diagnosing and managing patients who are nonverbal.